“I am not uncertain.” What Tony Robbins, the TV Show ‘Billions’ and My Next Webinar Have in Common

Written by Michael Loban

June 20, 2017

Like many, over the past two years I have become a frequent viewer of the show Billions. I am going to spare you my review of the show, but the story line that caught my attention the most was Axe’s relationship with Taylor Mason, the company’s new analyst who seems to never be wrong.

Their dedication to data and analysis is something that we in marketing can only aspire to. In fact, it all started in Season 1, when ‘Dollar’ Bill tells Axe: “I am not uncertain.”

Billions, photo credit to Showtime

In marketing, we do not tend to make statements like this, but rather rely on phrases like “Analytics is a directional tool.” So, what would Axe do if an analyst came to him and said “We do not have all of our monthly Facebook conversion data because, for 4 or 5 days, our Facebook pixel was not properly firing.”

My guess? Axe would start doing the firing.

To build on this, I wanted to explore the notion of certainty and uncertainty in the world of digital marketing. According to KPMG, only one-third (33%) of CEOs trust their data and analytics. In fact, only forty-nine percent said they are using Data & Analytics as a way to find new customers.

To address this conundrum, we are bringing more certainty into the world of digital uncertainty. After all, certainty is one of the top 6 Human Needs, as described by Tony Robbins (in short, we all need certainty in our lives).

On June 28th, we are organizing a webinar with guest speaker Richard Joyce, a senior analyst from Forrester, to examine why certainty is such a rare accomplishment in digital marketing and explore the opportunities that we have to address it.